Fig. 3
From: Human brain metastatic stroma attracts breast cancer cells via chemokines CXCL16 and CXCL12
Gene and protein expression analyses of 3-D human breast cancer CAF aggregates. a Heat map of hierarchical cluster analysis of RNA seq data derived from the normal, primary breast tumor CAF, and brain met CAF aggregates. BC82 and BC97 were used for the normal aggregate group; BC68 and BC80 were used for the primary tumor aggregate group; BC66, BC70 and BC55 were used for the brain metastasis aggregate group (see Table 1). Individual gene dot plots showing changes in mean expression levels of transcripts PDGFα, CXCL12, and CXCL16. b Quantitative RT-PCR validation of relative changes in expression levels of the CXCL12, CXCL16, and PDGFα. c Immuno-fluorescent staining directed against CXCL12 and CXCL16 expression from patient tissue and patient-derived CAF aggregate. Representative immuno-fluorescence images show Vimentin (green) and CXCL12/CXCL16 (red) expression in both patient tissues and patient-derived stromal aggregates. Scale bar for zoomed images represent 50 µm. d Measurement of soluble CXCL16 in media of patient-derived normal, primary and metastatic stroma by ELISA. Metastatic & primary stroma: (# P < 0.03)
